Reporting would be more accurate if the government allowed free access to the North & East. News reports that are consistently seen to be inaccurate will be shown up – since many parts of the media electronic, print, etc will be reporting from the scene and it will be fairly easy to pick out inaccuracies.

With fewer reporters on the ground reporting becomes more vague. This in itself does not make it inaccurate, it is just harder to verify things.

When it comes to allegations, rumours and falsehoods, nobody is spreading more of them than the government itself.

This is an erosion of rights and press freedom, absolutely true, but at the same time, there have been a number of media reports which have little or no evidence backing it up, other than hearsay and conjecture. Sources are not cited, evidence is not produced, just allegations and rumours. Admittedly evidence is hard to come by, witnesses and sources are scared to come forward, but it is imperative to have evidence in order to make any sort of statement against the competence of the Armed Forces.

It is wrong to muzzle the media yes, but the law should also ensure that the media does not print false/unsubstantiated garbage, which only creates more confusion in the populace. I think the Govt were harsh to shut down ABC Radio, but they did report falsely, creating panic and fear without checking their facts.

I should be clear that my view is that the media’s accuracy should be controlled by the laws of the country, and not dictated and decided by the MoD. If the press makes a mistake, the Govt (or anyone else) should be able to take action against them in a court of law, and a penalty should be imposed, preferably financial. Not call them to Temple Trees and tell them that if they continue to report against the Govt, that the Govt cannot be responsible for their safety and security in the future…

Note to DB: Yes, Zimbabe is West of Paradise. So you’re right… “we’re not so different from the West”

Aadhavan, after you hop off your hobby horse and pull your panties out of your arse crack, perhaps you can look up the word ‘context’. ;)

They’re saying anyone that opposes the war is working for the LTTE, who they are fighting a pretty violent war with. Hence the implication is that all those people (re: us) are now in the line of fire. And they are. Sri Lanka has plummeted in the press freedom index, putting us in the same neighborhood as Iraq, Libya and Syria.

More to the point, people I know get death threats and the fact that the people tasked to protect them consider them terrorists based on political views (for peace, ironically) is pretty fucking evil. Journalists here actually do get shot, killed, beaten and disappeared. So I think things are actually worse than it sounds.

The freedom of speech and of the free press is always susceptible to this “chilling effect”. Get your head round this elementary idea most of learnt in the O’level grades and you’ll probably have a different take on the issue.

You’re engaging in semantics. You know what Indi means. Most western govts may have official acts that prevent soldiers from talking to media and they may also prevent military information leaking out but you don’t see this kind of blatant intimidation taking place. The GOSL and MoD being non-military doesn’t count as ‘civilian’ oversight, having a bi-partisan parliamentary committee does. Unfortunately, the Executive Presidency makes any such committee moot (We need to have a French style system where MPs resign from Parliament when they’re made ministers. Parliament would thus be less susceptible to the machinations of dictatorial types).

Being blase about the whole thing ‘because they do it in the West’ isn’t really logical because the West has independent institutions in place where people, civilians and military alike, can seek redress. The West also doesn’t have the culture of impunity and apathy that we have.

This is what its website says:

RESPONSIBILITIES AND FUNCTIONS

MINISTRY of Defence is responsible for the formulation, co-ordination and the execution of policies in relation to the security of the country.

OBJECTIVES

* Maintenance of internal security and defence of Sri Lanka.

* Implementation and maintenance of the Prevention of terrorism Act No. 48 of 1979 as amended by the Act No. 10 of 1982.

* Maintenance of the Commonwealth war Memorials and the war Graves.

* Supervision and maintenance of the establishment matters of the three services and the Kotalawala Defence Academy.

* Supervision and maintenance of the establishment matters of the National Cadets Corps.

KEY FUNCTIONS

* Maintenance of the defence in Sri Lanka.

* Maintenance of General Sir John Kothalawala Defence Academy.

* Administration of the Directorate of Foreign Intelligence & the Directorate of Internal Intelligence.

* Administration of the Language Training Institute at Kotmale.

* Administration of the Sri Lanka Institute of Strategic Studies.

* Administration of the National Cadet Corps.

* Administration of the Home Guard Service.

So what is the bottomline?

Issuing guidelines to media is NOT a function of Ministry of Defence. (Unless it is covered under PTA, which I doubt)

So it is better for all if Ministry of Defence-wallas attend functions like maintenance of the Commonwealth war Memorials and the war Graves, which are within their mandate than trying to do things which are NOT within their mandate.

Gota, take a shovel and clean around graves man, that is what you are being paid for!

Journo’s classified as supporting terror can presumably be locked up under emergency laws. Given that parliament can be bought, the judiciary is neutered (and will be more so after Sarath Silva’s retirement next year) the only opposition the GoSL faces is the press.

Once they get that under control (the attacks have succeeded in cowing them already – the Nation has been bought by supporters of the regime, Iqbal Athas is no longer writiting anything much and everyone else seems to be treading very carefully) they will have virtually untrammeled power which will then lead us to only god-knows-where.

I wonder what the department’s view is on the attack on KN. He seems to have committed many of the offenses listed above. I believe an inquiry into this incident was ordered by his excellency the president. Any update on how things have progressed there?

As for civilian oversight of the military, remember the GoSL is civilian, and so is the MoD, and they have oversight of the military, as do the governments in the west. If you mean non-governmental oversight of the military, that’s absurd, impractical, and isn’t done anywhere. If you’d suggested parliamentary oversight of the military, via select committees, etc, it’s at least practicable, but still not necessarily practical, given the quality of our ministers and MPs.

I’m not sure what they mean by “analyse military operations,” if “analyse” means “discuss”, but having seen some of the half-arsed analysis done in the media of past military ops, I can’t see any real capability in the civilian media, even among the defence correspondents, online or off. As for “no one other than the military officers who are qualified to plan, conduct… military operations,” I don’t see a prob in that. Most of our past military disasters have been caused by unqualified civilian interference, usually by defence ministers and/or presidents.

Telling soldiers not to talk to the press is pretty common too, worldwide, and in Britain all UKSF troops now have to sign the Official Secrets Act which prevents them publishing their memoirs or biographies even after they leave the Army. So no more Andy McNabs.

Yeah, calling journalists traitors is bad, but hey, that’s nothing new in the west either. It’s just being officially sanctioned here, as is the statement on opposing the war.

Incompetence – they can’t even disguise this statement to look like it’s some democratic-lets-save-our-nation bullshit.